LANCASTER – Everywhere you looked, there was something to catch your eye.

In every direction from the big, gold “G” in the center of the bright green field, there are big and small touches that make Garrard County’s new stadium a showpiece for the community, for the school and especially for the students who will use it.

School and district officials showed off the new stadium Friday when it opened to the public for the first time for the Garrard County bowl.

Their pride in the facility shined almost as brightly as the lights that dazzled players and fans in the near-capacity crowd.

“There are a lot of nice places … but you can definitely put this up against anywhere, and certainly for a school our size,” Garrard athletic director Mark Scenters said. “We’re just incredibly blessed to have this facility.”

Garrard has become the first area school to open a new high school football facility in at least 35 years, but this is much more than a football field.

Multiple sports and the marching band will call the stadium home, and it is part of a larger athletic complex that will house even more sports and bring almost all of Garrard’s teams together on the grounds of the school that opened in 2006.

“It is a facility where we feel like we can host a ton of stuff at the same time and just really show off Garrard County,” Scenters said.

The chance to show off the new facility came only after a small army of contractors and school faculty and staff members worked tirelessly in the weeks, days and hours leading up to Friday’s football doubleheader to make sure the stadium was ready for players and spectators just in time for kickoff.

“I’ve been joking with a lot of people that tonight is kind of like when you move into a new house and you bring a duffel bag of clothes and get your TV and internet working and have some toilet paper and you’re moved in,” Scenters said. “And then after that you start getting your stuff delivered and getting your utilities and things, and it starts going from there.”

Scenters said that’s how it will be at Garrard’s complex for months to come.

“It is absolutely a work in progress,” he said. “Every time somebody comes to a home game, they’re going to see something new.

“What makes it special is watching the kids walk in and seeing something new each time they walk in … and seeing them walk in today on game day and seeing things coming together is pretty cool.”

The stadium that will replace Dyehouse Stadium, where Garrard played football since the 1960s, and Leavell Field, the home of Garrard’s soccer teams, and that will give the school its first track and field facility has seating for about 2,800 fans and an ample amount of standing room, as well as a large and modern press box and a video scoreboard.

Underneath the grandstand are two locker rooms, one of which Garrard’s football team will occupy full time because its game field is also now its practice field. The Golden Lions had practiced on their new field but didn’t get to move into their new locker room until hours before their game.

A weight room and a training room adjacent to the home locker room will be completed soon, but Garrard coach Spencer Crutchfield said what has been completed is impressive in itself.

“It’s unbelievable to me,” Crutchfield said. “I just never thought we would have it, and everything’s coming into shape. The kids know how well they have it now because we’ve kind of bounced around from here to there.”

“I’ve got to give our administration, our school board a lot of credit. They’re sparing no expense.”

Then there are those lights. The LED bulbs that illuminate the field can also flash and change color on demand to help fire up the teams and the fans, and it certainly had the desired effect Friday during the Lions’ 23-20 win over Middlesboro.

“The kids like that light show an awful lot,” Crutchfield said.

Cameron Peak scored the first touchdown in the new stadium, breaking free for a 63-yard run less than four minutes into a game that began after a 1-hour, 37-minute delay.

Garrard football will share the stadium with the soccer teams this fall, and the track and field areas of the stadium are expected to be completed in the coming weeks. Construction is continuing on the adjacent baseball and softball fields and tennis courts that will complete the complex and that are expected to be done in the coming months.

And ground is expected to be broken within a few months on a gymnasium at the school that will house the Garrard basketball and volleyball teams.

“It’s giving kids opportunity, and that’s what it’s all about,” Scenters said. “And we can’t do that without a lot of help. There’s a lot of support in this community from a lot of people, and without that we’re nowhere.”

Photos by Mike Marsee